Overcome the caveats of hybrid working

The corona pandemic shook up preconceptions about regular ways of working and showed organisations that remote work is possible and can be beneficial for both employees and employers. Since then, many companies have stepped away from fully remote arrangements and chose for a balance between working in the office and working from home. But is that an improvement compared to how it used to be? PwC expert Marlene de Koning weigh the pros and cons.

Hybrid working has many advantages, so it comes at no surprise that the majority of all workers in the Netherlands work partly from home. However, it also comes with certain caveats, as shown by previous research by PwC into the pros and cons of hybrid working. Two findings stood out because they highlight the points of attention for organizations:

• Hybrid work improves mental and physical wellbeing
  The first finding is that hybrid work significantly boosts employee mental and physical well-being for most people. Employees experience this due to, amongst others, a reduction in commuting, increased autonomy, and as a consequence have more time and flexibility for their personal activities. However, some groups (e.g., extroverts, recent hires, managers) are more prone to feeling stressed, isolated, and even burnt out. They feel a need for more in-person interaction during their workday. 
• Hybrid work can lead to decreased innovation in the long term
  The second finding is that hybrid work could be linked to less collaboration, employee engagement and innovation over the long run. As working from home frequency increases, innovation seems to decrease because online collaboration can be less effective than face to face interactions. However, recent research suggests that with the rise of new collaborative technologies innovation actually increases due to remote work as a consequence of efficient access to the "collective brain".

Therefore, it is also important to recognize that benefits of hybrid work come with certain caveats that require some active management on the side of employers to optimize hybrid work. People analytics can help remediating these potential negative effects. We will show with a few examples how this can be done.

Pulse surveys to identify employee differences

In hybrid setups it's all the more imperative to keep your finger on the pulse of your workforce through active employee listening via, for example, regular pulse surveys. PwC's partner Scorius helped a multinational construction company identify the right balance and suitable hybrid arrangements for its diverse workforce using such surveys. 

The client had over twenty thousand employees, both highly educated technical engineers and blue-collar workers, spread across multiple countries. Scorius administered short monthly surveys to a randomized sample of employees to measure sentiment frequently but without constantly bothering employees with questions. These pulse surveys revealed far-reaching insights into different employee groups. 

For example, older workers had more need for informal contact with their colleagues to feel well and connected to their teams. Similarly, engineers needed to be close together to work best, however, groups that worked more from home (for example support functions) had a better work-life balance. This was especially true for workers with young children. 

For blue-collar workers, working night shifts for longer periods of time and then having longer periods off was better for perceived health and stress than working at night for short periods. On top of that, a long travel time to the project site led to higher absenteeism while higher engagement lowered it.  

Managing a hybrid workforce means reconciling even more differences within the workforce than before. Regular insights into different groups and what matters to them helped the client implement new and improved policies to help both employees and the company perform at their best.

Organisational network analysis to rethink work arrangements

As mentioned, inefficient hybrid work models can inhibit collaboration and innovation. And when designing their return-to-office strategy, many companies made choices based on formal hierarchies and their assumptions about team interactions. 

This was done by the leaders of a midsize biotech company. They initially planned to bring employees back to the office based on gut feeling. However, this approach would have missed critical intergroup collaborations and realizing that they opted for doing an organizational network analysis (ONA) instead. By using ONA, the company analysed interactions and collaboration patterns both within and between business units, as visualized in the illustrative example. They were able to identify links and dependencies on a team as well as individual level allowing them to make more strategic decisions. 

Firstly, they determined clusters of employees with similar interaction patterns, leading to a split workweek schedule. Grey and orange clusters worked in the office on Mondays and Tuesdays, while pink and yellow groups were in on Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesdays were flexible for everyone. This arrangement facilitated 77 per cent of the needed in-person collaborations and satisfied 82 per cent of employee preferences for in-person time.

Secondly, the company improved space allocations, ensuring that teams which needed to collaborate were physically close. Collaboratively overloaded employees were thoughtfully seated to ensure they did not become further overwhelmed. And new joiners were paired with well-connected employees to integrate them into the network. 

This evidence-based approach to developing a hybrid work strategy shifted the focus from individual efficiency to understanding the interconnectedness within the organization. It showed employees that they'd work with those they needed to interact with most, which motivated many of them to come to the office willingly.

Speech analytics for better collaboration 

Another way to improve hybrid collaboration and teamwork is speech analytics. Speech analytics provide valuable insights into communication patterns and dynamics within teams. It can identify dominant speakers who tend to monopolize conversations, as well as individuals who may be less vocal or frequently interrupted. In hybrid meetings, virtual participants are often sidelined because it's more difficult to join the conversation. Speech insights help teams understand the balance of participation and ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute and share ideas effectively.  

Getting a feel for engagement is generally hard for leaders managing hybrid teams.  They cannot simply walk through the office and see how everyone in the team is doing. Here voice analytics can be of help too as it can analyse data from multiple meetings and gauge the overall sentiment of the team and indicate the level of employee engagement. If in most meetings employees show signs of frustration or disengagement, it can signal to the leader that it's time to intervene to address concerns and boost employee morale. 

Making hybrid models work

Hybrid work may look like a puzzle with many moving pieces. However, having more data and insights into your workforce can make solving this puzzle much easier. Whether you are defining the overall strategy or looking to improve a specific aspect of hybrid work, people analytics can support you in making better, evidence-based decisions.